


The Prince

by LynsFantasy



Series: Laina's Voltron Stories [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Earth, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Magic, Assassination Attempt(s), Betrayal, Lies, M/M, Manipulation, Murder, Narrative Style, No Dialogue, Paradox, Propaganda, Royalty, Sorry Not Sorry, Time Travel, Tragic Romance, ish, just roughly a few thousand years before modern day, not at any particular point in history, this is very AU are you getting that yet?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 02:18:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14486649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynsFantasy/pseuds/LynsFantasy
Summary: The Prince was cruel, so they said.The Witch gained power from him because he gave it to her willingly, so they said.The Princess is seeking justice for the Prince's betrayal, so they said.The Assassin will fix everything, so they said.But what happens when history is a lie?What happens when they said wrong?When the guilty are innocent, who is the real culprit?





	The Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be clear, this all takes place in a an earth/human/no-aliens AU.  
> Warning for harem mention, accusations of abuse, and death.  
> If you want a more clear (and spoilery) warning, see the notes at the end.
> 
> We torture the characters we love, and I love Lotor and Lance. Sorry not sorry.

The Prince was cruel, so they said. He committed patricide and regicide, killing his father in a power-hungry bid for the throne, so they said. He let his empire crumble and fall victim to enemies and rebellions, neglecting his royal duties to instead chase pleasure, so they said. He killed any he merely _thought_ to have betrayed him, so they said. He kept concubines, so they said. He was so possessive over them that when one died in an escape attempt, he turned against his ally the Princess, who had tried to help the poor concubine escape, so they said. He sought out the Witch, joining her to fight against the Princess, so they said. With the Witch’s help, he locked the Princess away in a magic sleep, so they said. He then gave his power and life force willingly to the Witch, enabling her to spread her cruelty throughout the world, so they said.

 

The Princess wanted justice. The Princess wanted to stop the Witch. The Princess wanted to prevent any of this from ever happening.

 

…Or, at least, so they said.

 

The Assassin and his friends awoke the Princess.

 

Lance, at first, did not believe Allura’s claims that she had been locked away in a desert cave for the last few thousand years, but she convinced him and his friends. She told them that she needed their help to fight the Witch.

 

They tried. They failed. They needed a new plan.

 

Allura decided that the best course of action would be to prevent the Prince from ever giving his power over to the Witch in the first place. Without the Prince’s power, the Witch would not be nearly as strong or as dangerous.

 

To do that, they needed someone to go back in time to assassinate the Prince. And the one who volunteered to be the Assassin was Lance. He was sent back to the Allura of that time with a letter from the Allura of the present.

 

Dressed in blue silk and golden chains, Lance was given as a gift by the Allura of that time to the Prince so that Lance could get close to him in order to assassinate him. Lance expected to be treated cruelly. The Prince was cruel, so they said.

 

They said wrong.

 

The Prince was charming but cold as he accepted Lance as a gift from the Princess. He hardly looked at Lance as he led Lance into a chamber in his palace – a chamber that looked clearly designed to house a harem, but which was empty. Lance asked why it was so. The Prince scoffed and said that he had no desire to keep people as objects of pleasure. He said that after he had shown up to three public or diplomatic events with Lance, showing off his new gift, he would quietly set Lance free. He promised that he would never have Lance undress for him.

 

The Prince’s name was Lotor, and Lotor was none of the things that the Prince was said to be.

 

Lance snuck out of the harem chambers to spy on Lotor, and he found that Lotor treated all of his servants and civilians gently, though he was cold to foreign diplomats. Lance heard from servants that Lotor’s father had been a truly awful Emperor, and that Lotor taking the throne was an act of revolution, not of power-hunger. Lance overheard Lotor discussing strategy with his closest advisors (all women – a significant detail Allura had failed to mention) for how best to let go of the colonies at the edges of the empire in a way that would allow said ex-colonies to prosper without the empire’s rule. Lance discovered that Lotor had only killed _one_ close advisor for betrayal, and that was because she had become a pawn of the Witch. Lance knew firsthand that Lotor acted possessive over concubines to keep anyone from touching them and to keep people from inquiring about them after Lotor had secretly set them free. Lance could see in so many different ways that Lotor despised the Witch and everything she stood for and that he would never seek her out and willingly join her. Lance could also see that Lotor treated Allura with respect, even when she did not return that respect, and bore no ill will toward her.

 

How was Lance supposed to prevent the events of history, as they were said, when they seemed so unlikely to ever occur?

 

In the plan, the Assassin was supposed to **kill** the Prince, and, indeed, he had intended to. The Prince was a monster, so they said. The Assassin, Lance, could kill a monster. But Lotor was nothing like what the Prince was said to be, and, apparently, Lance _could not_ kill Lotor.

 

In the plan, the Assassin was not supposed to **love** the Prince, and, indeed, he had never intended to. The Prince was a monster, so they said. The Assassin, Lance, could never love a monster. But Lotor was nothing like what the Prince was said to be, and, apparently, Lance _could_ love Lotor.

 

Lotor at first rejected Lance’s affections, most likely thinking that Lance had some kind of motive behind his actions. But Lance could be persistent.

 

Eventually, Lance told Lotor the truth – about how he was a time traveler, how he was the Assassin, how he was supposed to prevent something that would never have happened in the first place, how the Princess seemed to truly believe that Lotor was a monster – and Lotor believed him.

 

Lance continued with his affections, and Lotor? Lotor accepted them. Lotor accepted _him_.

 

The Prince loved no one, so they said. The Prince had no mercy, so they said.

 

Lotor loved Lance. Lotor had mercy on his would-be Assassin.

 

The Princess grew impatient with Lance’s delays. She knew the plan the later version of herself had made. She knew that Lance was supposed to be the Assassin, the one to take down the Prince.

 

Tired of waiting, the Princess came to the palace and found Lance. She argued with him. She insisted that he was supposed to be the Prince’s Assassin. He answered that he was indeed the Prince’s, but that he was not going to be the Assassin. He argued that Lotor was nothing like what Allura had said he was. The Princess argued that Lotor had to die anyways, or else the events of history would unfold, and the Witch would gain power.

 

The Assassin, for the first and only time, attempted to live up to his name. He attempted to assassinate the Princess. But the Princess was faster, and Lance died without ever truly becoming the Assassin he had volunteered to be. He died without blood on his hands. He died as an innocent.

 

And because Lance did not deserve to die, Lotor swore revenge, and he became the Prince spoken of for millennia afterwards. The Prince was cruel, so they said, but they did not say why. They did not say that his love had died.

 

In Lotor’s weakness and grief, the Witch came to him and manipulated him, and Lotor was unable to resist. The Witch fed on his desire for revenge. She spurred him on to kill the Princess, and Lotor only resisted the Witch’s commands enough to spare the Princess from death, even though Lotor _wanted_ her dead, because he knew that he could not allow the Witch to get her power. He locked her away behind a veil of magic so that the Witch could not kill her.

 

The Prince set the magic that the Princess was trapped behind so that it would only open to the touch of one man, Lotor’s beloved, the Assassin.

 

For disobeying her, the Witch tormented Lotor and drained away his power, feeding on his life force so that she could spread her wickedness and cruelty around the world. Lotor, the Prince, was unwilling yet unable to stop her, unlike what the stories said.

 

Thousands of years later, the Assassin and his friends awoke the Princess. She, with their help, tried to correct her mistake by fighting against the Witch, but the Witch subtly poisoned her mind and her memories using magic that the Princess could not detect so that the Princess did not remember what really happened so long ago. Guided by false accounts and made-up memories, the Princess elected the Assassin and sent him back in time with a letter urging her younger self to make sure that the Prince died no matter what.

 

And so, the cycle continued – a paradox, so they would say, if they knew the truth.

 

The Prince was cruel, so they said, because the Witch whispered so in their ears.

**Author's Note:**

> Full warning: "The Prince" is said to be violent, to be quick to kill subordinates, to be possessive, to have a harem, and to presumably be sexually abusive toward said harem, but all of these accusations are false. (Well, Lotor ONCE killed a subordinate, but otherwise, all accusations are false.) Lance is given to him as a gift for said harem and expects to be abused, but he is pleasantly surprised when Lotor doesn't do anything to him and promises to set him free after doing so would no longer look suspicious. Character deaths are not graphically depicted, but they are mentioned.  
> ~~~~~  
> Let me know what you think! This was supposed to be just a quick writing exercise to clear some writer's block, and then I somehow ended up with 1.4k words and _still_ no motivation to work on my main project. Such is life. Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. This is a rather experimental style for me, so any feedback helps! Thank you!


End file.
